Rural Development Planning

Policy & Planning

Nautilus offers policy advice and strategic planning services on every scale from small business to international government. Our long-term global experience enables us to anticipate future policy trends and their consequences. We are able to provide in-depth evaluation the impacts of policies and management decisions on natural resources, businesses, communities and the environment. We also have a proven track record in the design of appropriate and innovative policy for resource managers.

Development Programming

Nautilus has wide experience in assessing development requirements against a range of policy objectives, balancing, for example, economic growth with community and welfare needs. The company regularly assists regional government and economic development agencies to draw up development programmes, design programme delivery systems and identify programme funding. At national and international levels the company regularly participates in sector studies on behalf of bi-lateral and multi-lateral development agencies, and provides senior programmers and fund-holders with the necessary information to allow them to allocate scarce resources in the most productive and cost-effective manner.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Nautilus has undertaken a wide range evaluation work of projects and programmes, ranging from co-ordinated international teams evaluating long term structural funding programmes to examinations of local boundaries to uptake of funding. The company has experience in ex-ante, mid-term, ex-post and post evaluations of policy, programmes and projects, and in the undertaking of thematic evaluations. This experience covers the design and implementation of project / programme monitoring systems, and the use (and abuse) of framework planning systems. The company and its staff have the experience to provide informed, impartial, independent and objective assessments, to offer re-focusing advice to project and programme managers, and to undertake value for money assessments on behalf of funding agencies.

Review of how changes in Principle 3 assessment methodology might impact on the scoring and scoring justification of an example fishery previously MSC certified - part of the MSC's rolling programme of improvement to the MSC standard and assessment methodology

Provision of independent evaluation advice to the NZ government on the processes and content of an evaluation of ten years of NZAID assistance to fisheries development in the small island development states (SIDS) of the South Pacific

Study of sea cucumber fisheries in PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga, and the international trade in dried sea cucumber - beche-de-mer - with a view to advising on how to move towards more sustainable fishing and trading management regimes and practices

Techno-economic assessment of the potential for further development of giant clam farming and export, based on available technologies, global market assessment, and comparative advantage - in collaboration with Hambrey Consulting

Advice on the Monitoring and Evaluation requirements of the second regional Oceanic Fisheries Management Project for South Pacific Island countries - a project seeking to further strengthen island countries' capacities to meet their obligations under the Conservation and Management Measures agreed through the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), and to consolidate and extend innovative approaches to strengthening management of the region's important tuna fisheries and boosting the economic benefits that these island countries derive from these fisheries - in terms of both r

Contribution to Europe wide evaluation of the EFF funded FLAG programme, focusing on the UK programme, and example local FLAGs - consortium member under the EU Fishery Evaluation Framework contract held by Capgemini Consulting, Wageningen University and Romboll

This study develops a profile of commercial fishing, seafood processing and recreational sea fishing in Dumfries and Galloway, in the south west of Scotland, bordering the Solway Firth and the southern tip of the Firth of Clyde. The study focuses on identifying the scale, composition, and contribution of this sector to the local economy.

As part of the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) work to strengthen its assessment methodology, participation in an exercise to interpret how changes and improvements in the assessment methodology and scoring instructions for Principle 3 might have resulted in different scoring outcomes for sample fisheries that had already achieved certification as well managed.

As part of the process of developing a formal Local Development Control Plan for the island of St Helena, assistance was given in defining and justifying a coherent network of national parks, nature reserves, international wirebird areas and historic conservation areas to manage and project the natural and historic heritage of this very special island and its peopole.